The University of Sheffield joins Liverpool University Press’s Opening the Future programme

Posted by on Dec. 14, 2021 at 1013

The Library at The University of Sheffield (TUoS) is the latest to subscribe to LUP’s backlist of Modern Languages books. As members they will get DRM-free access to 37 of the publisher’s eBooks on Hispanic culture and languages, including literature, cinema, politics and history. And after three years membership, TUoS will retain perpetual access to the eBooks.

LUP’s innovative OA monograph funding programme will use the library’s membership fees to produce and disseminate new frontlist OA monographs. You can read more about the backlist books offered and LUP’s open access plans on their Opening the Future website: lup.openingthefuture.net

“We are really pleased to welcome The University of Sheffield as a new member of Opening the Future,” said Press CEO Anthony Cond, “Libraries like this are truly helping us to bring about equitable access to new scholarship worldwide”.

Anna Clements, Director of Library Services and University Librarian at TUoS said, "The University of Sheffield sees the creation of an equitable open research environment as critical to research excellence and at the Library we are actively repurposing our budget to support this transformation. Subscribing to non-profit and community-led initiatives, such as LUP's Opening the Future programme, means we get greater value for money with unlimited access to the Modern Languages eBooks backlist as well as new open access (OA) monographs, freely accessible to all." 

If you would like to see how your library might similarly enhance your digital collection of eBooks - and simultaneously fund new OA monographs - you can sign up to become a member of Opening the Future with Liverpool University Press through Jisc’s subscription manager in the UK, through LYRASIS in North America, or through the OtF website anywhere in the world.

Some institutions may not wish to sign up to the book package, or may not be able to. However they might still want to support, and help to fund, Open Access monographs at Liverpool University Press. For those libraries, there is also the choice of an ‘OA Supporter Membership’: this will help to fund OA but libraries will not receive access to any backlist packages of book titles. It is simple and quick to join.